Careless Actions
by xSymnia
Summary: A book detailing the gang's actions on Lyoko is published and sent to the government to be investigated. Our heroes must now stop the public, the government and Men In Black from arresting them and destroying Lyoko, which would free XANA and let him win.
1. Discovery

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

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Heavy rain patted against the large glass window of a fifth floor office overlooking the La Defense as a middle-aged man sat with his head in his hands staring at the parcel on his desk. The weekend duty was not a coveted job, but every team had their turn and this week it was his. Saturday and Sunday were long days, despite the usual heightened level of violence and crime, but the agency he worked for did not take care of those. The hastily wrapped parcel sat innocently on the wooden desk, but the cover of the contents of the parcel glared up at him. Looking over the note that accompanied it once again, he sighed and buried his head deeper into his hands. He needed a translator, but not many were willing to give up their weekends to do something so big. However, the sound of the nearby elevator reaching the current floor pulled him back into reality. He had, in fact, been able to find someone. The familiar figure of the translator appeared behind the frosted glass surrounding his office, moving towards the door. A quick knock and the rapid opening of the door announced her arrival. Agent Marchal did not know this woman well personally, but had heard many things about her and seen her around the office. She was undoubtedly, the best for the current situation. Nodding and motioning for her to sit in the armchair on the opposite side of the desk, and doing the same himself, Marchal smiled at his somewhat savior.

"I'm sorry for bringing you in here on your day off." He said, the closest thing he could find to say as a greeting. The translator nodded back warily and placed her clasped hands onto the desk, leaning forward.

"May I ask what is so important to bring me here today?" She asked coolly, obviously annoyed at giving up her day off. Without saying anything, Agent Marchal pushed the contents of the parcel towards his visitor. The translator stared at the parcel and picked up the book inside it. The black and red cover of it shone in the florescent lights of the office as she read the writing on it.

"You want me to translate this, obviously." She remarked, replacing the book onto the desk and picking up the note that accompanied it. Furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as she read it, she noticed Marchal watching and waiting for her translation.

"The note is in American English, noting the spelling of some words." She began, rambling as she studied the note more.

"What does it say?" Marchal questioned, his voice harsher than he had intended. The translator stared at him.

"You could say please." She commented, again coolly.

"Agent Knight…" he warned, pulling rank over the irritated agent. Knight glowered at Marchal, but returned to the note.  
"Dear Secret Service of France," she read aloud, translating the English text into her native French, "this book is sure to gain media attention. Please give the public what they deserve and not leave them disoriented. Investigate this book." She continued, slightly slower and more careful as she interpreted it. Lowering her eyes to the bottom of the paper it was written on, she noticed a last reminder from the writer. "Beware; this book speaks only the truth. It is non-fiction." She added, looking up in surprise at Marchal.

"Is this for real?" Knight asked in disbelief, the wonder of the note snapping her out of her icy attitude. Marchal nodded and pointed at the book, gesturing for her to translate that too. Turning the book over to the back cover, Knight examined the blurb.

"Our home, our planet is supposed to be safe. Safe from alien invasion, safe from incurable diseases and safe from world domination by a third party. However, the latter is not being upheld." She transcribed, keeping her head down as she analysed the wording more. "Six members of our own race have turned against us, planning world domination through the uses of computer viruses and attacks on innocent bystanders. With some as young as twelve, this group has committed many serious crimes and managed to get away. But now, their story is in this book, for all to discover about how they got away. Come and unearth their careless actions." She finished, her voice being obviously changed by shock and amazement. Marchal tried to keep his face neutral, but he too was clearly startled by the blurb. After moments of silence, so quiet that the rain outside was deafening, Knight spoke again.

"There's a disclaimer at the bottom of the book too, revealing that it is true as well." She said, dropping the book back onto the table with a thud. Marchal looked between the book and Knight, considering a line of action. "Are you going to investigate this book?" She questioned, flipping through the pages of it for a brief idea. Marchal picked up the note once again and after a few glances at it, made his decision.

"We have no other choice." He resigned.

-----

A heavy thud sounded throughout the silent dorm room of Kadic Academy as Odd pulled his heavy purple suitcase onto the bed. It felt like only yesterday that he had been packing it for the two months summer vacation, which bothered him. The holidays had gone too fast for his liking. Despite the endless texts to friends, missions to go swimming as much as possible and endeavour to make use of the freedom and bliss of vacation, the couple of months felt like seconds. As he pulled various items out of the hurriedly packed suitcase and put them back into their usual spots in wardrobe drawers, the dorm door opened again and the familiar sound of his roommate's swearing replaced the quiet of the room. Odd turned around and laughed as he helped Ulrich pull the strap out of the hinges where they had been tangled. Once he was free, Ulrich pulled his best friend into a hug. Despite their close friendship, Ulrich hadn't seen Odd since the last day of term, since his parents had taken him to Germany for the entire two months to visit his paternal grandparents. Pulling back from the "man-hug", Ulrich made similar movements to Odd, placing the bursting bag of clothes and school-things on his bed and sorting through them.

"How were your holidays?" Odd asked, his back to Ulrich but both boys knowing who it was directed to. Ulrich grimaced as he remembered the eight or so weeks of being yelled at in a foreign language by his grandmother about losing his German language tongue.

"Fine, if you removed my family, Germany and the idea of spending time with both from it." He answered dully, storing his brand-new schoolbooks in the desk drawer. Odd chuckled as he imagined Ulrich's family vacation.

"Well mine was fabulous!" He declared, punching the air with his fist. Ulrich grinned.

"Let me guess, you met someone." He presumed, as it was a common topic of discussion for the first day back at school the past two years.

"Exactly!" Odd responded, turning around in surprise that Ulrich had known. Waving off the curiosity, Odd reminisced about the girl he had met on the beaches of Italy. 'Her name was Alina. Very pretty. Good fashion taste and great sense of humour." He said dreamily. Ulrich snickered at Odd's summer romance.

"And she broke up with you?" He queried, not so much interested for gossip, but for laughs. Odd shook his head.

"I did. She was home-schooled in the town we were staying in. My family was leaving." He explained, going back to his packing. The two stood in silence for a moment before the door opened again.

"There you two are! We thought you guys were lost!" A well-known voice announced, as three other students walked into the room. Odd and Ulrich looked up to see the familiar faces of Aelita, Jeremie and Yumi staring back at them. Summer had changed them all. New clothes and hairstyles for the girls, and Jeremie had grown a fair bit taller. Everyone seemed to have had a good holiday except for him; it appeared to Ulrich, causing his mood to dampen slightly. After the customary hugs and "how are you?"s took place, the gang left the unpacked room and headed to the recreation room together. Odd excitedly told them all about Alina and his love for his homeland as they made their way through the fairly deserted campus. There were still a few hours before all students had to be back on school grounds.

Unsurprisingly, the "rec room" was packed. Aelita assumed because it was the most common spot for friends to meet after their vacation split. Sissi, Herve and Nicholas sat in the corner, pouring over a copy of _Vogue_ that Sissi was holding. Heidi and Emily leant against the wall watching as Theo and Paul played foosball. Odd stared as a couple of girls he hadn't seen before walked past him to meet up with another student called Anais. William muttering "sorry" after he shouldered Odd trying to get through the door brought him back to reality as he noticed Yumi waving across the room at him. Running over and joining the gang on the couch, Odd couldn't get his eyes off the new students, who according to Aelita, were transferred from a private school to their grade. Ulrich and Yumi jokingly fought over the TV remote trying to find something to watch as Jeremie and Aelita connected their laptops back onto the school's network for classes. Finally discovering music videos that suited both their tastes, the TV stopped flicking between channels and the flashes of different coloured light stopped. Soon enough though, a news program interrupted the show.

"Sorry for the interruption, but in breaking news, the government agency _Services Secrets de la France_ has decided to investigate the contents and events of a to-be-released book." A dark-haired male newsreader reported, keeping an emotionless face as he read. Jeremie and Aelita moved their heads away from their laptop screens and stared at the TV, interested in the article. Ulrich raised an eyebrow at the proclamation. It had to be a powerful story for the government to want to investigate it.

"The American-published book _Careless Actions_ by journalist Robert G. Montengro, describes the adventures of five teenagers and their plan to take over the world with a powerful computer virus." The newsreader continued as an image of the black and red front cover of the book showed on the screen. Yumi couldn't help but notice how the room's noise extinguished and became eerily quiet. The entire room had their eyes on the screen.

"Claiming to be non-fiction and every detail to be truthful and real, _Careless Actions _also gives the names and photos of every person involved. The SSF requests that any information on any of these perpetrators be given to them on the following number." The newsreader finished, then rattling off a string of numbers as he hit his papers on the desk to neaten them up. Thanking the audience, his face left the screen, only to be replaced by five photographs. The gang and the student body in the silent recreation room watched in shock as the photographs on the TV screen sharpened to give crystal clear images of Aelita, Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi. It was well past the return of the music videos that anyone uttered a word.

"But-but they're here!" The shrill and annoyingly high-pitched voice of Sissi Delmas rang through the room, causing many, including the gang, to look at her. Sissi's face changed swiftly with realisation. "That's your secret, isn't it? You're trying to take over the world!" She demanded, but the question didn't need answering. Yumi gazed over the room and found William, who too was sending a death glare to her group. Locking eyes with him for a moment, William's solemn face lightened, but soon reverted back to the cold and icy one it had been before. Standing up and clapping her hands together Yumi brought the attention back to herself, addressing the crowd of confused and somewhat angry schoolkids.

"Do you honestly think that myself, Aelita, Jeremie, Odd and Ulrich would do such a thing?" She asked rhetorically, since no one answered. Each of her friends stood up when their name was spoken. Yumi burst out laughing; the Lyoko Warriors knowing it to be fake, but following her lead to sell their story. Mr. Delmas stood up off his chair at the back of the room and faced his students.

"I wouldn't believe everything that is said on the news, Sissi dear, and I believe that goes for the rest of you." He told the bustling room, although not one person actually had moved since the news bulletin. As the gang exited the room, they could feel every single pair of eyes from the students and staff burning on them. That was not a good sign.

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_**So…what do you think? I really would love for you who are reading to give me review; if you do I'll know people are reading and update.**_

_**This chapter was mostly an introduction, but it gets better, so review to find out!**_

_**Oh, also, this story is set around season 3. Yes, I know the recreation room came in season 4, but everything else is season 3. Call it AU if you want.  
**_

_**Thanks!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	2. Unusual

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

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The abandoned factory's computer lab was deathly silent as the heavy metal elevator doors opened, revealing the five anxious-looking teenagers standing solemnly inside. The familiar room was pitch-black except for the brightly lit holographic projector in the centre, blinding them until their eyes adjusted to the sudden stretch of light. All of them were still on edge since the incident in the recreation room, but no one had spoken a word about it. There was nothing to say, since Sissi had said it for them. That book had revealed their secret for all to see, and there was nothing they could do about it. Now a government agency was investigating them. That was not good. Most of all however, they _knew nothing_.

Ulrich ran a hand through his hair as he tried to make sense of the day's events. Returning to Kadic, the tale of Odd's summer romance, the recreation room, the news article. Now the factory, to research and find out how this Robert G. Montengro had found out about them and Lyoko. It seemed too desperate for Ulrich, grabbing at thin straws for information that could save them and Lyoko. If the government arrested them and shut down the supercomputer, XANA would be free and there would be no other way to defeat him. He watched as Jeremie leapt into the computer chair and Aelita followed, looking over his shoulder at the screen. Two pairs of eyes were always better than one. Tapping in the author's name into a search engine, Jeremie and Aelita's eyes scanned over the pages and pages of information about this perpetrator. The controversy about the book seemed to be good for him.

It was many long moments of stillness as the genii continued with their research. There was nothing to break the awkwardness of the circumstances. The discovery had cast a depressing and blue mood over the gang; the amazing tales of their summer vacation had been unofficially deemed lacking in priority to the current situation, as Jeremie called the current _nightmare_. Not one word of Yumi's return to her homeland and relatives, Aelita's holiday with Jeremie's family or Ulrich's adventures with his foreign grandparents was spoken, unusual for the first day of reunion in two months. Jeremie's voice eventually broke the silence.

"Guys? You might want to hear this." Yumi, Ulrich and Odd raised their heads and stood up off the floor and walked over to the computer mainframe. "Robert G. Montengro was born as Robert Roux. He was born in France and then moved to the United States." Jeremie explained, trying to keep his voice at a normal pace despite his excitement about information. He turned his head to face his friends, "He studied here, at Kadic in 1988!" He stated, his voice so quick it was hard, at first, to understand him.

Aelita's eyes widened in shock as she heard what Jeremie said. Dropping her head into her hands and crying out loud as memories flooded back from the depths of her mind, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and Jeremie watched on, clearly startled. Jeremie jumped out of the computer chair and put his hands on Aelita's shoulders to calm her down. It took a few moments, but she soon did. Gulping and evening out her breathing, Aelita revealed what had caused her despair.

"1988 to 1999," she said dreamily and sleepwalker-like, as if unsure if it had happened or not, "were the years my father taught at Kadic." Watching as each of her friend's faces changed with comprehension, eyes opening and jaws dropping. The quietness that came with the shock wore off quickly.

"You mean to say," Jeremie questioned, trying to choose the perfect words for it, "your father taught the man who is trying to bring us down?" The surprise and some doubt were evident in his voice, but nobody said a word about it. Aelita looked at the floor again, dismayed at the facts she had recalled.

"There was only one teacher per subject back then. He must have." She replied sadly. Yumi, Ulrich and Odd cast worried looks at one another.

"How does this prove he knew? XANA could have easily possessed him to write and publish it." Yumi acknowledged, furrowing her eyebrows at the thought of it. Ulrich turned his head to Yumi and did the same thing. There were too many unanswered questions. Yumi's, however, could be answered.

"XANA lacks the human initiative to write a book. Even possessing someone in the field would have not helped. He's a computer virus, all he can write is programming." Jeremie responded, his voice making it seem sharper than he had intended. It didn't matter, because again, nobody called him out on it. More silence occurred and Jeremie returned to his computer chair, flexing his fingers to rid of the cramp in them.

"We're going to have to be really careful from now on." He resigned, dropping his head and refusing to look at the others. The low hum of the holographic projector remained the only sound in the computer lab. "I'm deleting all unnecessary data from the supercomputer's hard drive and transferring power from Sector 5 to up the firewall." He announced, more for Aelita's understanding and mindfulness than anything else.

-----

It was a slow journey through the sewers back to the school campus, for none of the Lyoko Warriors exactly looked forward to the other student's icy and hateful stares and whispers behind their backs that would certainly happen when they arrived back. The dormitory and cafeteria buildings had every window shining a warm yellow light, an ironic welcoming feeling to the Lyoko Warriors as they walked towards them. Much noise and commotion could be heard resonating from the cafeteria from the edge of the campus forest, where the gang stood. Seven o'clock: dinnertime. Time had really flown by in the factory. Odd wondered if Einstein knew exactly how many hours, or days, he had spent in the factory that year alone. Glancing at each other in a knowing look, the group headed up to Jeremie's dorm room. Dinner was worth missing for one night to avoid the wrath of a rumour-filled student body, plus Sissi and William.

The archways between the administration and dormitory blocks were also illuminated, a rarity for the last night before term resumed. Usually the staff resided in the common room with a feast and a bit of alcohol, toasting to the last night of no work. However, there was no sound of glasses clinking or laughs or giggles from the common room, only the racket of something slamming down on a desk. Aelita's long pink hair flung around and over her shoulders as she flipped her head around to see where the tenor had come from. It didn't take a genius to guess after the yells of an unfamiliar voice also flew out of the open doors to the archways.

"In case you didn't hear me the first time, that was not a request!" An angry male voice demanded, followed by another slam on the desk. Mr. Delmas surveyed the furious man and straightened up in his chair, standing his ground.

"As I said, I cannot give you that information, but it is dinnertime now. Maybe you should check for yourselves in the cafeteria." He snapped, trying to keep the situation civil and lacking in violence. The Lyoko Warriors peered out from behind the glass doors into the foyer of the administration building. It was easy to see inside the principal's office from that point, but it wasn't exactly a good thing. A large, middle-aged man stood in front of the desk, arms planted firmly on the edge of the table and back curled over, a completely different aura to what students commonly had when they were in the same position falling over him. He wore a dark suit jacket and bottoms, and not even a wisp of hair was out of place. The man obviously did not want to not get his way.

"I am not going to let your ignorance get in my way!" He roared, startling the eavesdropping students and Mr. Delmas, "Tell me where Stones, Belpois, Stern, Ishiyama and Della Robbia are!"

The gang's faces rapidly changed with shock as they heard their names bellowed out. The astonishment of it held on for many moments, and not one of them noticed the sounds of the man walking out of the room until it was too late. They had been spotted, and easily recognised by him. The thought to run came over all of them, but each soon realised they could not. Another suited person, a younger woman, walked in the opposite direction, eyes icy and with a stern expression. They were trapped.

-----

The polished red and black cover of a book glowered up at Yumi as it smacked onto the desk of the principal's office. It had started raining again, and the thunder clapping seemed too perfectly timed with the start of the interrogation. Yumi sat in the chair, arms crossed, eyeing up her interrogator. He was still fuming, obviously from scaring the principal into informing him of where she was, his light-skinned face now coloured a slight red. The woman remained perfectly still in Mr. Delmas' chair, hands clasped on the desk and leaning forward, eyes looking her up and down for signs of lies.

"My name is Agent Marchal, this is Agent Knight." He seethed, as if Yumi had asked for their names over a hundred times. Remaining silent, and straightening up her chair, Yumi stared directly past the agents, ignoring every question. She knew that they technically couldn't do anything without her parents present, after watching many crime TV shows with Hiroki over the years. Marchal was distinctly irritated that she had not taken any notice. The woman, Agent Knight, pushed the book across the table for her to see.

"Have you seen this book before?" She questioned, her voice calm and civilised, unlike Marchal's, who had a short fuse. Yumi took a second to glance at the cover of it. The writing was in English, but looked enough like her native French for her to understand. The book was _Careless Actions_, by Robert G. Montengro.

"Yes." She answered, returning her gaze to the same spot. Knight gazed at her, quite unnervingly for some time, analyzing her for signs of lying. Yumi knew that she wouldn't find any, she had seen the book before, they all had.

"Where?" Marchal thundered. His face was now lacking in the redness, but it seemed to her that they had resorted to the clichéd "good cop, bad cop". She was going to play the same game.

"Where, Yumi?" Knight asked, the use of her first name stunning Yumi for some time.

-

"On the television, a news article came up about it. They showed the front cover." Ulrich replied coolly and in the same tone he gave his parents. The one which told them he didn't want to be there. Knight and Marchal cast a fleeting look at one another and then turned back to him. He guessed it was because they had hoped they'd catch someone out on a slightly different answer. Knight sighed wearily and opened up the book. Flipping over the pages quickly, she pointed her finger down at a sentence that sparked her interest.

"What about this Lyoko? How much do you know about that?" She enquired, turning the book around and indicating the sentence to him, ignoring the fact he couldn't understand it.

-

"Lyoko? I've never heard of it." Odd said, making sure his voice had no trace of smugness or fear, his body unmoving and showing no signs of lies. Marchal sized up the scrawny kid and drew himself up to full height. Tightening his tie, he sent a death glare to him. The kid as playing dumb, he could feel it. Knight's eyes switched between her partner and Odd. Odd got the feeling she was thinking the same thing.

"Well you know what, kid? I don't believe you." Marchal snarled, before firing off another question. "This book says, according to Miss Knight, that you found a supercomputer, rebooted a program that some fugitive created and tried to take over the world with it."

-

Jeremie sat motionless in front of the two interrogators. It had taken over an hour and a half for them to finish with the others, and they definitely didn't seem to want to stop anytime soon. Staring out the window across the campus courtyard, he said nothing, did nothing and proved or disproved anything.

"When you brought back XANA, how did you intend to eventually do it, anyway?" Marchal growled, leaning forward onto the desk menacingly towards Jeremie. Staring innocently into the face of his questioner, Jeremie raised an eyebrow and answered the query confidently.

"XANA? I know that's what it said in that book, but let me ask _you_ a question. How do you know the book is even real? That XANA is real? That Lyoko is real? That we are even involved?" Marchal's fists clenched with rage and he grunted in response.

"I don't like your attitude, son." He barked, as the woman on the opposite side of the desk remained quiet, emotionless, speechless, merely watching and profiling him. "And for the record," he added fiercely, walking behind the chair Jeremie sat on and pulling the back upwards, letting Jeremie fall onto the floor, "that was _four_ questions." He commented. Pounding the chair back onto the floor, he darted his eyes away from Jeremie to the door.

"Out." he commanded, not looking at Jeremie, but both knew who it was aimed at. Jeremie scrambled out of the room, only seconds before a roar of "next!" broke out from the office. Passing Aelita on his way to the foyer, where the others remained, he smiled supportively to her, a non-verbal of wishing her all the best. Aelita timidly moved into the principal's office, smiling nervously as she followed the agent's gesture for her to sit down.

"Miss Aelita Stones." The man greeted, his voice much calmer and less ferocious than she had heard beforehand. Picking up the book in one hand and matching up the name to the face in the photograph inside, he smiled, relieving Aelita slightly, but it soon turned out to be not a good sign. "Or should I say Miss Aelita Hopper?" He challenged. Aelita couldn't help or cover her shocked face. How did he know?

"Or does Schaffer work better for you?" He provoked, the smile widening. The two agents had been saving the best for last. The one of the suspects who had the most unanswered questions. Aelita managed to recover her astonished face, but not quick enough for the woman analyzing her to realise that Aelita obviously knew a lot more than she was letting on, and them knowing startled her.

"You were asleep inside that computer for a long, long time. Your childhood taken away from you." Marchal remarked, not letting the cynicism in his voice go unheard. Aelita gazed at him, mouth slightly open in puzzlement. She wasn't given a chance to question it before he quizzed again.

"It's understandable. You wanted revenge on the world that turned you into a mere Artificial Intelligence." He noted, losing the cynicism and keeping his voice flat. Aelita stuttered for words to redeem herself, to tell him off for even thinking she wanted to destroy the world, but none came. Mr. Delmas however, saved her, clearing his throat and catching Agent Marchal off-guard. Before he could bellow at the principal for interrupting, Mr. Delmas unsparingly scolded him, treating him similar to a young student who had just seriously broken a school rule.

"You have been grilling my five student for almost two hours, Agent Marchal. As school principal and carer for these underage-children, I demand that you leave immediately. I will not have you interrogating them any longer!" Agent Marchal glared at him for a while, before glancing briefly at his partner agent and forsaking it. Striding out of the office, Aelita could effortlessly hear the man muttering under his breath about rules and regulations. Agent Knight picked up her handbag and smiled apologetically at Delmas, then followed Marchal quickly out of the building. Aelita perched on the chair; dropping her head and staring at her lap. She heard the footsteps of her friends entering the room again, each and all of their moods sour from the long roasting. Aelita stood up and grinned sadly at Jeremie, who consequently hugged her tight in his arms.

-----

Odd's heavy panting filled the sewers with the only noise other than the heavy patter of running feet as the Lyoko Warriors made their way to the factory for the second time that day. The rain had started again and was flying through the metal bars at the end of the underground sewers, soaking them once again as they ascended the ladder to the bridge.

"Remind me again why we had to come back here?" Odd mentioned between deep breaths as he climbed up the metal right behind Aelita. Jeremie too, along with the others, was panting too, but none of them could afford to stop for rest.

"We need to destroy any evidence of us being in the factory!" Jeremie exclaimed, swinging down the cable to the main upstairs area of the factory. Odd grabbed onto the cable once Jeremie reached the elevator and sighed.

"And we couldn't take our skateboards because…" He started, yelling out his answer as he lurched around the canopy of the factory, swaying from left and right as he tried to find the perfect time to jump off. Jeremie rolled his eyes. It was nice to have some humour in the otherwise dull day.

"The floors were too slippery, Odd." he answered in a tired voice, much like a parent to a young child. Despite what Jeremie said, Odd knew full well why he had insisted for them not to. Had they discovered the skateboards there, they would count them and perhaps assume that they weren't at the factory at that time.

Everyone gathered in the elevator and Aelita punched in the down button, lowering the metal box to the lab's level. Marching into the dimly lit lab once again, the elevator doors swiftly closed and locked, leaving the gang residing in the room for many more hours to come. It was, however, not long before the elevator doors opened again, stunning Yumi, Ulrich and Odd, who rapidly got to their feet in fighting stance. Whoever was coming into the factory this late was obviously not supposed to be there; a threat to them. When the heavy doors opened and revealed the inhabitant, the three who were ready to fight become astonished and confused. Regardless, they were right. Agent Knight stepped into the computer lab, her typical serious expression and icy glare staring down each of the Lyoko Warriors.

_** ----------**_

_**I love cliffhangers, in case you haven't noticed.**_

_**I apologise for the late update and the really long chapter… I couldn't break it up.**_

_**So the inquiry is in full swing … want to know what happens? Send me a review and I'll update!**_

_**Thanks!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	3. Ally?

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

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Odd could easily picture the scene in a movie. The camera panning around the circular computer lab, he, Ulrich and Yumi in fighting stance in front of the intruder, expressions solemn. Jeremie and Aelita's eyes awide, mouths open and gaping, their hands centimeters away from the keyboard, the entire room paused in the commotion of Knight entering the room. Smirking at the thought of it, Odd's eyes fixed upon the face of the young agent, studying her face much like she had only moments ago, analysing it for a sign of worry or anxiety. He had seen it before, in the various police-centered films his parents had forced him to watch over the summer, how the face and eyes acted as a window to what the person in question was feeling. But her face was like stone; unmoving and unwilling to give away anything. After many minutes of the sudden slowing of time, Knight's stern expression changed, and she began unbuttoning her suit jacket.

"Ah-uh." She warned, pointing out her index finger and cocking it superiorly as she noticed Yumi flinch and prepare to aim a high kick at her. Ulrich's eyes flickered between the sly smile curtaining over the woman's face and her hands undoing her jacket clasps. Opening out the long jacket's sides for the three fighters to see, it didn't take long for Ulrich to notice the firearm sitting innocently on her hip. The lighting of the room caused the gun to shine into the Lyoko Warrior's eyes, and to Odd, making it belong even more so to a film. Catching sight of the weapon, Yumi almost instinctively dropped her arms in a makeshift surrender. The two boys followed her lead and Knight nodded at them, encouraging them to continue leave their fighting stance.

Several long moments passed, and the atmosphere returned to an eerie silence. Jeremie nervously gulped to clear his throat and took a deep breath, directing Knight's attention to him.

"Why are you here?" He asked, knowing every one of his comrades was thinking the exact same thing. Knight blinked at the genius and sneered slightly at him.

"I'm not here to arrest you, if that's what you're wondering." She answered bluntly, the sneer on her face opposite to her calm voice. Upon no answer, she put her hands together, eyes focused upwards in an attempt to explain her purpose. Finally, she found the right words. "I'm here to help." She stated, once again levelly. Each and all of the gang's eyebrows shot upwards in shock. None of them had been expecting that. Knight glanced at each of them, taking in their reactions. Yumi was the first to recover.

"Why?" She questioned, and everyone could effortlessly tell she was worried that Knight's visit was a ploy, just bidding time for the rest of the agency to move in on them. Here they were, giving them evidence that they had been to the factory many times before, feeling at home there. Knight sighed heavily and unraveled her hands, never breaking eye contact with all of the gang.

"Because I'm one of the youngest agents of the SSF. Because I don't think that five _thirteen-year-olds_ would intentionally harm the lives of thousands of people worldwide. Because I don't think that that book is telling the truth, or at least the whole truth." She announced. Aelita raised an eyebrow upon hearing Knight's proclamation. Had Knight thought this the entire time? Jeremie broke the awkward silence following the declaration.

"How do we know you're not here because the other agent asked you to?" He queried, reiterating the suspicion that had shot through his mind after she had first told them why she had come. Knight shook her head in disbelief.

"Didn't I just say? I believe you, I want to help. I swear to God, I'm your last resort to get out of this alive!" She exclaimed, emphasising the last sentence, and her sincerity breaking her out of the cool attitude she had on. Jeremie's face changed with puzzlement.

"If you wanted to help us, why did you translate that book willingly for the agency?" He inquired, liking his new found power over the agent and the turns of the tables as to who was questioning who. Knight turned her head away from him in frustration.

"If I didn't, they would just get another person to. Someone who wouldn't help you. Should I repeat what I just said? I am your _last chance_. I will clear your names!" She expressed, her calm demeanor fading away rapidly in annoyance that they wouldn't believe her. When she was met with more stillness, Knight grunted irritably and pulled something out of her pocket, exhibiting it to the group. In her hand was a cheap mobile phone.

"This," she aired, "is what we call a burn phone. As you can see, this is mine. Prepaid, untraceable." Her voice was icy again, but brought on by underlying sarcasm and exasperation than her smooth mien. Using her other hand, Knight began rummaging around on the inside of her suit jacket. For a split second, Odd though she was going for her weapon, but instead of a metal handgun, she pulled out a piece of paper. Gesturing towards the paper with the phone, Knight clarified what it was.

"That," she proclaimed, followed by a slap against the wall where she stuck the paper, "is the number. When you need my help, call it." Knight added, and Aelita couldn't help but notice the emphasising on the "when". She believed they would need her help, and she was sure enough to condemn then on it. Returning back into the open doors of the elevator and punching the 'up' button before anyone could react, Knight left the gang in an awkward position, just as how she had entered it in.

-

The taps of Yumi's Converse across the floor swiftly became deafening in the stillness of the factory, the only sound except for the elevator stopping at the ground floor and the hum of the projector. Sighing and hugging her elbows, Yumi peered at the floor and cleared her throat. Someone had to say something about that.

"Think she was serious about helping us?" She asked, to no one in particular, but all of them just the same. Jeremie and Aelita cast a fleeting look at one another but didn't say a word, and Jeremie went back to his work on the supercomputer to get his mind off it. Odd shrugged, but Ulrich stared at Yumi's lowered head.

"Say she was," he brainstormed, clapping his hands together to bring notice to it, especially from the working genius, "do we _need_ her help?"

"It _might_ be good to have someone in the inside, I've seen it in movies-" Odd started after a what felt like hours passed, only to be cut off by Yumi's confident voice.

"She's risking her career and practically committing treason if she does. She said it herself, she's one of the youngest agents in the SSF, I doubt she would do so, because if they found out-" Yumi argued, ignoring Odd's aggravated face which spread over him after she interrupted him.

"Yeah, yeah, we know. She'll be locked up with the rest of us, Yumi." Odd finished off for her, his actions getting angrier by the minute. Yumi gritted her teeth and glowered at Odd, met by just the same by him. Seething, Yumi turned to Ulrich, the mid-ground in the argument.

"What do _you_ think, Ulrich?" She spat, the calm and anxious atmosphere around her from when Knight left vanishing. Ulrich glanced between Odd and Yumi, but couldn't find the right words to explain his case.

Jeremie and Aelita overlooked, shocked at how quickly the three of them erupted into a yelling match, talking over the top of each other like little children. Quickly glancing at Jeremie, and nodding in agreement of a course of action, Aelita drew a deep breath and exploded at the three.

"Would you guys just SHUT UP?!" She roared, bringing the clash to rapid close. Yumi, Ulrich and Odd stared at her, "You guys are fighting over the _possibility_ that someone could help us!" She screamed, amazed at how stupid it seemed. The three "children" suddenly found the floor of the lab extremely appealing. Jeremie continued to watch over the scene, flexing his fingers and pushing his back into the chair,

"OK, here's what we do. We have her burn phone number, we'll keep it, and if worst comes to the worst, we'll call her. Is _that _OK with everyone?" He mediated, feeling like he and Aelita were parents. Nobody answered, but Jeremie took it as a 'yes'. The new-found hush was unnerving for Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, Jeremie and Aelita, whose emotions were still running on a high from the argument. It was softening however, and gave everyone the chance to cool off, but the sudden beeping of the supercomputer startled them out of their rehabilitation. Aelita's eyes popped open and she gasped. She knew that beeping all too well, it was a sign that XANA was on the move. Jeremie's shoulders tensed and he spun the chair to face the others.

"XANA has activated a tower! Get to Lyoko now!" He ordered, flinging his arm out into the distance in what the others figured to mean Lyoko. He had huge force in his voice, much more than he would have five months ago. XANA had been especially quiet, and the gang had expected a huge attack after waiting for so long. It was the first attack in five months.

-

"Virtualisation!" Jeremie's accustomed voice lead as the scanner's fan kicked in and sent the two remaining warriors flying into the virtual world. Landing on the ground inches from where the girls were standing, Ulrich and Odd got to their feet and surveyed their surroundings. The Mountain Sector was lifeless, completely serene and not a sound other than the gang's breaths could be heard. The lack of noise did not last long however, as the familiar clanks of tarantula's metallic legs rang through the Sector's misty air. They were not far away.

"There's the tower!" Aelita called, pointing her index finger in the direction of the glowing red pillar across the other side of the drifting path, and the tarantulas. Odd groaned as he saw this, and leapt onto his Overboard, speeding towards them. XANA just _had _to make things harder. Aiming his large cat paw at the over-sized spiders, Odd took two shots, and missed both. Ulrich laughed at Odd's misfortune as he flashed nearer to the monsters, saber out in his hand ready for fight. Deflecting the hundreds of lasers pointed at him, he jumped high into the clouds of the Mountain Sector and on top of one tarantula, piercing the bulls-eye symbol that lay on its head. Backing off from the blast, Ulrich slyly smiled at Odd, wordlessly tormenting him about his off "A" game. He turned back to where his Overbike had been, and swore under his breath when he realised it had been destroyed in the onslaught of lasers. Another tarantula's cries of pain sounded and were soon cut off suddenly as it exploded in a pink static mist. Ulrich spun his head instantly to see where it had come from, and it seemed too obvious when he eyed Aelita and Yumi moving towards the chaos on the Overwing.

"Laser Arrows!" Odd bellowed as his purple paw shot out five more arrows at the overgrown insects. One of the shooting creatures was killed, falling off the narrow path as it struggled around in alarm, followed by the common blue stretch of light announcing the entrance into the digital sea. Odd cheered as he saw it fall, his first XANA kill in many months. It felt good to be back. Flying closer to the ground and launching several more arrowheads at eye level, Odd caught up with the "tail" of Ulrich's SuperSprint and the charge of lasers. Destroying another tarantula, Odd flashed a "told you so" grin at Ulrich and continued towards the large group of monsters. There were many more to go.

Jeremie's fingers hastily flew across the keyboard in the dark computer lab. XANA must have been planning this attack for ages, being so quiet lately, and yet there was no sign of one on Earth. That was not even slightly good. Watching as the avatars of Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and Aelita plus the XANA spiders worked their way towards one another on the monitor, Jeremie made calculations and attempted to re-virtualise Ulrich's Overbike. Although it was not impossible to make one once it had been destroyed, it took much more work than the first time around. The elevator doors opening again caught him off guard and he readily checked to see who it was. No one had been divirtualised yet. Knight stepped into the room for the second time that night, eyes shining with the XANA bulls-eye and both hands clutching the pistol that had angelically lay on her side minutes ago.

"Step aside from the computer, Jeremie." Her XANA-fied and digitalized voice commanded, showing no intent to release her grip on the weapon. Jeremie's hands naturally continued their patterns on the keyboard without his mind's consent as he stared in shock down the barrel of the gun.

"I said NOW!" Knight demanded.

_**----------**_

_**First of all, thank you so much for the reviews so far, please, I beg of you, keep it up.**_

_**I'm so sorry for the late update; the sudden overload of homework slowed down my writing habits.**_

_**So…another cliffhanger. Review to find out what happens!**_

_**Thanks!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	4. Basics

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

The barrel of the gun remained angled at Jeremie's head, Agent Knight's finger fixed on the trigger. She, or XANA, had no design to move it away. Jeremie gazed at the weapon, human instinct telling him to fear it, which he certainly did. Following his own instinct however, his body continued to work on recalculating the data needed for Ulrich's new Overbike. For the second time that day, time slowed down to an almost standstill, every second feeling like years. Ulrich's somewhat irritated voice through the headset broke the trance.

"Any time now, Jeremie!" He urged, and the sounds of the lasers shooting past him making it practically impossible to hear. Jeremie could do nothing; he knew all too well that if he moved a muscle, it was game over for him. Knight stepped forward confidently, a smirk overshadowing her face in contempt. Her firearm was still trained on Jeremie and her eyes still glowed with the tell-tale bulls-eye symbol. Jeremie barely had any time to think before the butt of the handgun came down between his shoulder and neck. Everything went black.

Knight replaced her weapon in its holster on her hip and unceremoniously threw the unconscious blonde to the floor. Without missing a beat, she jumped into the newly-vacated computer chair and began to type furiously on the keyboard, XANA telling her exactly what to do and how to do it.

A hollow grunt sounded from the misty sky of the Mountain Sector as the over-grown spiders continued sending an onslaught of lasers towards the Lyoko Warriors. Aelita's head snapped up, naturally to follow where it came from, but her mind knew much quicker than needed.

"Jeremie?" She called, but it was no use. All of them knew that Jeremie was as-of-then, out of action for some reason or another. They needed to deactivate that tower. Yumi motioned for Aelita to take control of the Overwing as she carefully maneuvered around the pink-haired elf and pulled out her tessan fans. Scrutinizing the battle below, she leapt off the flying scooter and began spinning as she fell to the narrow path, deflecting the various lasers directed at her as she did. Finally letting go of her fans, she boomeranged them to the front two monsters, the leaders of the pack. What would have been a direct hit was averted when a cautious shot from the creature spun the spinning saw off its path. Yumi groaned, there was no way she would get that back now. Odd's laser arrows barraged towards the tarantulas, destroying two as he did. Cheering for himself, Odd gave himself a "victory clasp", only for two lasers to knock him off his Overboard. Aelita sighed and shook her head as she witnessed Ulrich trying to use a more direct route to the destruction of the monsters; hand-to-hand combat. They were getting nowhere. Closing her eyes and gripping the Overwing's handle with two hands for fear of collapsing off the craft, she set her voicebox in motion and sang out a long, one-pitch note, concentrating on the creation that followed. Soon, a large maroon sphere evolved and encased the entire group of XANA spiders, stopping their lasers from hitting any of her side, at least until it was defeated. The last of the lasers flew out before the sphere worked its magic at Yumi, earning an absolute hit to chest and devirtualising her. Ulrich watched and cried out, but changed his attention back to Aelita's journey to the tower. She was not far, so Yumi "dying" was not as bad as it could have been. Odd smiled and bowed at Aelita's back, proud of her ingenuity, but soon noticed the protruding jellyfish moving out from the safety of the cave next to the tower.

"Aelita, watch out!" He shrieked, waving at her for her attention. Aelita turned her head intuitively to chase where the call was from once again, and crashed straight into the head of the Scyphozoa. The Overwing flew out from underneath her and wrecked into the mountain behind her, exploding into thousands of data streams. Aelita shook her head to make sense of what happened, but wasn't able to before the shock of the Scyphozoa floating right in front of her set in.

"No!" Ulrich moaned as he reached out towards his helpless friend, despite the fact it wouldn't have helped anyway. However, suddenly everything went black as the sphere Aelita had created disappeared and reappeared around them instead of the tarantulas. An evil cackle rattling through the sky from the factory soon told Ulrich everything he needed to know about how it got there. XANA was at the computer mainframe.

Aelita hued as she dodged the tentacles of the squid, she couldn't let it get her. Had XANA managed to possess her, he would destroy the sector, and be one sector closer to winning. Jeremie hadn't yet created the program to virtualise them straight into Sector 5. Jumping away and dodging the tentacles, she broke into a sprint. She'd be safe inside the tower.

Jeremie's eyes slowly flickered open as he came around, hearing the metal doors of the elevator open themselves across the room. He moved his head ever so slightly, enough to see Knight's head move away from its focus on the computer to see who it was. She however, was expecting Yumi. Yumi strode out of the elevator and crossed her arms over her chest, staring down the woman sitting at the computer, or more correctly, XANA. Knight stopped her typing and stood up, ready for a fight.

"I knew we couldn't trust you." Yumi sneered as she aimed a kick into Knight's chest.

Ten steps. That's how far Aelita was from the tower. Generating an energy field in her hand, she turned around and sent it flying across at the preceding Scyphozoa. Latching itself onto the head, the sphere worked its worth and paralysed the overgrown jellyfish for a moment. Dashing for the tower, Aelita welcomed its sanctuary with open arms, falling through its thick walls and straight onto the XANA bulls-eye. The middle of the eye acted as a rising point, and she levitated up onto the second platform. The thousands of illuminated screens around her glimmered into her eyes, blinding Aelita slightly as she advanced to the highlighted touch screen floating in front of her.

"_Aelita"_ it confirmed after she placed her hand on the screen for the tower to recognise her. _"Code?" _It questioned, blinking as it awaited her answer. Lowering her head and shutting her eyes tight, the corresponding code flashed through her head, and soon typed itself onto the screen swiftly. The tower's various monitors descended down into the darkness below as it accepted the code.

The electricity sparking between Agent Knight's hand and Yumi's body suddenly barred as Knight's eyes closed and she fell to the floor senseless. Completely knocked out. Yumi landed on the floor of the factory with a loud thump, moaning as her ribcage collided with the hard and unwelcoming ground. It was a close one.

-----

"Who knew that someone who looks so small could weigh so much?!" Odd asked to nobody in particular as he heaved Agent Knight's legs off the ground and started inching backwards out of the elevator. Ulrich shook his head in amused bewilderment, watching Odd struggle with the woman's unconscious weight.

"You only find that interesting because you're so scrawny!" He half-snapped, meaning to sound superior but failing. Yumi laughed as she had, until then, silently escorted the boys plus Jeremie and Aelita back up to the ground floor. She instantly clutched her chest, pain shooting through her from the XANA attack. Aelita gave her friend a concerned look.

"Why didn't you do a return to the past, Jeremie?" She asked, hand on his shoulder and rubbing it absent-mindedly as they crossed the unlit room, watching the ground intently to make sure not to fall over.

"And risk the interrogation going worse than it did? I don't think so!" Jeremie exclaimed, chirpy for the current situation despite the injuries sustained while holding off the possessed agent. Odd gave his infamous grin as he dumped Knight's lower half onto the floor messily, obviously happy to get to do such a thing to get back at the questioning hell. Ulrich did a similar thing, and jumped back anxiously, as if he were expecting her to wake up rapidly and try to shoot him. After the customary wishes of good night to Yumi were done, Ulrich, Odd, Aelita and Jeremie headed back to the dorms. It was almost midnight, and being caught up so late by Jim seemed to have a whole new meaning than it had the previous year.

-----

The depressing grey sky hanging over Kadic Academy was reflected in the school campus the next morning, the excitement of seeing old friends for the first time in months was wearing off and the shock of another year of school was setting in. The clock radio sitting immaculately on the end of Jeremie's desk, bullied with numerous battle scars from the many times Jeremie had hit the 'snooze' button and missed customarily went off at 7am as it always did on a Monday morning, waking the sleeping genius. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and placing his glasses on to take in his apparently unusual surroundings, he headed to his computer, as he always did and turned it on, watching the fluorescent green binary code flow across the desktop. The swinging open of the door didn't bother him as he typed in his password and began his orderly start-of-the-year computer cleanup.

"All ready for another day of thrills and spills?" Ulrich asked nonchalantly as he walked up to Jeremie and leant against the table, arms crossed. Jeremie sighed and put his head to his hands.

"I still can't get my head around this book thing." he admitted, denying to look at his friend.

"You're the genius, you should Jeremie." Ulrich encouraged light-heatedly, but it received no answer, "This Robert G. Montengro found out about Lyoko, wrote a book about it, published it and sent it to the SSF. What's the problem?" Jeremie gazed upwards in unfaith.

"I can't believe you Ulrich! How can you be so airy about this?" He flared, waving his arms around and almost hitting Ulrich in the face. Ulrich remained cool, his body remaining still and unmoving.

"I didn't say that. I'm worried just like you!" He answered, locking eyes heatedly with the blonde genius.

"So why then?"

"I don't think the SSF fully believe the book either! You heard what Agent Knight said, she wants to help us!"

"We agreed that we don't need her help, Ulrich."

"I-" Ulrich started, only to be cut off by the door being rushed open again and the familiar pants of their mutual friend overpowering the conversation.

"Guys" Odd bellowed, breaking the tension and easing the attention to him, "You might wanna see this!" He added between heavy inhales of oxygen as he darted back out of the room and to the end of the corridor, to where a large window stood. Jeremie and Ulrich raced after him and looked over his shoulder at the commotion below. Outside, right in front of the administration building, stood what looked like hundreds of people. Each and every single one held either a XANA symbol or a placard, reading "shut down the death world". Ulrich's eyes widened in amazement. Several possibilities for the protest came through his mind, but a certain one stuck, and he feared that it was the right one. The three stood and watched the chaos, but a strong and fast beeping noise from the open door of Jeremie's room pulled them back into reality.

"A XANA attack!" Jeremie asserted, after sprinting back to his room to find the source of the noise, "that's all we needed!"

_**----------**_

_**First of all, I apologise profusely for my sad update time. My homework overload reached breaking point and I had no time to write at all (resulting in a very sulky Kailey).**_

_**Please review, as usual, they keep me going. You have no idea how much so.**_

_**Thank you all for your patience,**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	5. Risk

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

"Stop!" Ulrich commanded in a hushed whisper as he pushed his arm against Odd's midsection to stop him in his tracks. Odd tumbled to a standstill as he followed Ulrich's orders and peered over his shoulder at the cause of their halt. The protest had grown in size; people off the street outside the school had joined, knowing what it was about from the news or tabloids. Ulrich watched as a thirty-something man mounted a crate to gain height over the commotion and blew a deafening whistle to gain the attention of the bustling group.

"People, people!" He shouted, waving his hands extravagantly, fingers spread, "We all know why we're here, this situation is worse than global warming, bad politics and war combined. Our world is going to turn into hell on earth if we don't do something!" His gravelly voice bellowed, and many heads lifted in recognition of his proclamation.

"These teenagers are responsible for accidents and crimes against humanity, endangering lives because of their dreams inspired by science fiction!" Jeremie raised an eyebrow. There was no doubt he was talking about their gang. Silence followed the man's quotes, the people of the crowd knew that he was serious, and not to be joked about. In any other case, they would have sent him to a psychiatric hospital.

"We do this protest today to make the government that is supposed to save us _do something_ in their investigation! They've had all the time in the world, and have they arrested these kids? No!" Ulrich tapped Odd's shoulder to snap his mind onto moving. The leader's one-sided debate distracted the crowd from watching for them and it would be the only time for them to reach the gym.

"So are we going to let them get away?" A loud roar of "no" erupted from the congregation, instantly followed by cheers of agreement. Jeremie gritted his teeth as he soundlessly opened the large gymnasium doors and slipped inside behind Ulrich and Odd. The girls were meeting them at the factory, or at least, they hoped they were.

"We are _not leaving_ _until something is-_" the leader continued, as a black ghost consumed him from behind. A small cry was let out of his mouth as the intensity of the possession came over him, soon calming down. Nobody in the swarm of protestors seemed to notice, and were only concerned with the next word. After a few heavy coughs and splutters, the man regained his control of vocabulary and finished his sentence.

"Until something is done!" He shouted, again followed by the cry of approval, "We are going straight to the source, the factory where their death world is based, and we are not leaving until it is destroyed!" He finished, his words seeming harsher and bitterer than before. A couple to people in their crowd furrowed their eyebrows at the observation of this, but dismissed it as they blindly chased the man, who had since left the makeshift podium to lead the protesters.

-----

The worn wheels of Yumi's skateboard pounded across the cracks in cement lining the sewers as she coasted to the factory. Jeremie's call had been urgent, and once arriving at the school she had understood why. The chaos of the book had gotten way out of hand, but nobody except their little group, criminals in their eyes, could say anything against it. Yumi watched as Aelita shook her head, trying to make sense of it all, her scooter clicking melodically as it bumped over the cracks also.

The ladder to the bridge outside the factory was not far, and Yumi hoped the attack would be over soon; Jeremie's brief rundown on the protest march told her it was not going to end well. Dumping her board next to the ladder, she followed Aelita up the metal and onto the bridge. It was deserted, but soundlessly, they agreed not to take any chances and dashed for the cables on the other side. The sooner they got to Lyoko, the better.

Striding into the elevator, Aelita pushed the 'down' button with her fingertips and the box began to descend to the computer lab.

"What do you think the attack is?" Yumi asked, trying to make small talk in the midst of awkward silence between them. Aelita shrugged, but her eyes remained angled on the roller door of the elevator.

"I have no idea, but I doubt it's a small thing." The cables pulled to a stop and the doors opened to the computer lab; just as black and lightless as it was the last time they were there. Aelita raced to the chair and mainframe, punching in the keys with little care in the desperation of the moment. Yumi trudged dully behind her pink-haired best friend.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" She questioned as she watched Aelita start a delayed virtualisation program. Aelita shook her head and grabbed Yumi's arm, dragging her to the ladder descending into the scanner room.

"The sooner we get to Lyoko, the better." Aelita said, reiterating what had flashed through Yumi's mind earlier. Soon realising how tight she was gripping her friend's limb, Aelita dropped her hand, studying the red of it from increased blood flow. "I'm sorry," she apologized, her boots seeming more appealing than her friend's stare at the time, "I don't want to take any chances with the SSF." Yumi continued to intently gaze at Aelita as the two stepped into the hollow tubes. She didn't blame Aelita's emotions running on a high. The investigation was freaking them all out.

The doors closed and locked themselves and the low hum of a fan kicked in as the neon light around them flew up and down the edges of the scanner. Within seconds, the somewhat nauseating rollercoaster of a ride to Lyoko sent the girls flying.

-----

Odd's deep gasps as he tried to catch his breath did not pause as he climbed up the ladder to the bridge. Although it had been many years of running and skateboarding to the factory under stress, the adrenaline and pressure of the situation always seem to greatly curb his track talents. Jeremie and he had always been surprised that it never affected Ulrich.

"Oh no!" Jeremie yelped as he reached the top of the ladder. Odd and Ulrich stopped their ascending to not crash into their brainiac buddy. Two dark sedans pulled up at the road next to the bridge, the drivers and passenger seat doors opening before the car stopped and the tell-tale dark suits and sunglassed agents of the SSF jumped out of them. Of the six agents, Jeremie recognised two. Marchal and Knight gestured and waved towards the factory with much authority to the others as they placed objects inside their ears and on their jacket sleeves. Jeremie knew from television all too well that they were earwigs and microphones. The SSF had come prepared.

Hurriedly shutting the cover over the manhole as the six figures ran past, the fading thuds from above soon told Jeremie they were inside. Checking over the once again abandoned bridge, the two blondes and brunette leapt out of the cramped hiding place and sprinted to the open wall of the factory. It had been well over ten minutes since the announcement of an activated tower; the XANA attack would already be in full swing. Ulrich smirked as he realised that the gang had gotten to know their enemy's attack tactics so well as he pivoted down to the lower level of the factory. Odd and Jeremie quickly followed and the three moved into the elevator.

The metallic door fell and the box cascaded down to the bottom levels of the building. It was before that however, that Jeremie easily heard the "death world" shouts from across the bridge. The protest had moved fast, it wasn't long before they tried something risky with XANA as their leader. Darting to the computer, Jeremie's fingers instinctively shut down the elevator, the thought barely crossing his head before it went into action. It was only seconds before the common tightening sound of the cables behind them filled the silence in the room, the thick walls of the factory soundproofing the irritating yells from above.

"Jeremie!" Aelita exasperated voice called through the earpiece of the microphone. The sudden alarm made Jeremie jump, but the comfort of regocnising the voice was reassuring. Jeremie's daydreaming about the voice was cut short by another yelp, "Get Odd and Ulrich here now!" she commanded, and through the speaker the static of lasers flying past was deafening. A nod was all Jeremie needed to do to fulfill Aelita's wishes, Ulrich and Odd obediently raced down the nearby ladder and prepared for virtualisation.

"Aelita, what's going on?" He asked, the taps of his fingers on the keyboard once again going unheard in his mind, human initiative.

"XANA's trying to postpone us from reaching the tower." Aelita stated, her eyes focused on the virtual sky as she spoke. The roar of the army outside the temporary cave was booming. She didn't have to take another look as if to prove her words, "He's definitely trying to do something in the factory; he's not fighting until we do."

-----

"Stop people, stop!" The digitalised voice of the protest leader bellowed over the commotion of metallic clashes and bangs. XANA watched as the hundred or so followers destroyed everything in their path, people who had no usable weapons clawing at sharp pieces of metal and wood to use instead and those who did working on the elevator's cables. The yells of contentment did not subside, the protestors were happy to destroy the home of the death world. In all the noise, the hastened clicks of heeled shoes above didn't faze the chaos as Agent Knight witnessed the uproar. Closing her eyes and shutting out the noise, she wondered what possible things she could do. She had seen the three boys go inside the computer lab and knew too well that all five of the teenagers were inside. Their lives were at risk by the protestors if something didn't happen soon.

_**-----**_

_**I know, I'm sorry.**_

_**Homework at my school has gotten way out of hand, and I'm not entirely happy with this chapter.**_

_**Hopefully Easter and dance camp will give me some time to write :)**_

_**Review as always, you guys have been great.**_

_**See you next chapter!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	6. Please!

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

_**----------**_

Odd mindlessly breathed a grunt as he landed on the virtual terrain of the Mountain Sector, only feet from the cave he had been told the girls were hiding in. From where he stood, he could effortlessly spot the welcoming committee from XANA, complete with Mantas and their flying bombs. He had really pulled out all the stops, Odd mused as he followed Ulrich on all-fours to the well-hidden cave. As the two reached it, another thought crossed his mind; _"_How the hell are we going to do this? "

Sneaking farther and farther into the darkness of the hollow, Ulrich and Odd searched for their teammates. It wasn't hard to follow the echoed whispers belonging to the two girls racing up from a spiral ramp downwards. Ulrich imagined the cave worthy of an award. It was perfect, with two entrances, one well away from the other, and away from the monster army. Noticing the pink-haired and the brunette ahead of him, Ulrich breathed a sigh of relief. Defeating this army would be a million times easier than alone. Saluting to the 'princess' as a greeting, Ulrich followed her line of sight at the second exit to the sector.

"How did you find this?" Odd asked, his voice considerably louder than the girl's had been, not realising the echo or the effect it would have on the creatures above them. Yumi moved in almost light-speed as she tackled Odd and placed a hand over his mouth before he could finish the sentence. Using her other hand to place a finger to her lips and emphasise the silence of the cave. She soon let go, leaving Odd inexplicably feeling like a toddler with its mother.

"I created it." Aelita hushed in reply, her eyes worried focused upwards as a deafening clanking above moved towards the other entrance. Hitting Odd in the arm, she turned to Ulrich. "The other monsters are coming, we have no choice." Yumi nodded in agreement to Aelita's statement. Although the second exit was a much better choice than the first, where it lead to was unmistakably harder to pass. Four small platforms circled around the giant gap between the cave and the plains on the other side leading to the tower. It didn't take a genius to realise that if you miscalculated and missed the floating terrace, the digital sea would be waiting for you with no turning back. Jeremie's panicked voice broke the anxious mindset of the four-man-team.

"You guys want to hurry up with that tower!"

-

On Earth, the state of affairs was much more startling. A loud boom from above the computer lab told Jeremie that his persecutors were not far. One may laughed at the irony at the two similar situations, but it was too frightening for Jeremie to even consider doing so. Immediately, as if on cue, a crash broke his thoughts. The XANA-fied leader had regained control over his followers, of that Jeremie was sure of. Returning to his computer, he sent yet another plea to his friends.

"Please guys, now!" His fingers flew across the keyboard to start up the return-to-the-past. There were no words to describe his despair at that moment. The thick walls and metal doors of the abandoned factory worked wonders on soundproofing the yells and bellows of the protestors, but not so much on their destruction. If they found the hidden staircase of the factory, he was a goner. It led straight to the computer lab.

Jeremie's already-quickened heart skipped a few beats as the elevator doors began to open. Swearing loudly, he realised he'd forgotten to deactivate it. Expecting an onslaught of electricity or sharp pieces of metal tearing into his skin, he couldn't help but heave an enormous wheeze of reprieve when he saw Agent Knight waltz into the lab. Although she was part of the SSF, Jeremie still felt that she was different from the others, especially since that night where she offered help.

"Jeremie," she greeted, making no point in creating subtlety as she drew out her gun, "get into the elevator. My team is there, they'll get you out of here." She commanded, angling her firearm to the door leading into the staircase. He couldn't help but notice the emphasis on her saying "my team". A wave of alarm passed through him as he witnessed Knight edging her way to the door of the stairs. He guessed that the group was close. Swallowing and giving a fleeting glance toward his chance at freedom, Jeremie remained put in the chair.

"My friends are there," He affirmed, gripping the mouse and chair with his hands, "I'm not going without them." Knight stared at him before nodding at the other agent in the elevator. A man dashed from the box to her side as backup.

"We'll stay with you then." She declared, ignoring the obviously shocked face of her companion. Jeremie could tell he was one of the people who wanted his friends and him in jail. Another thought crossed his mind. The SSF were about the safety and security of the country, and its people. They were not going to let perpetrators of a 'death world' die at the hands of the public. There would be a considerable uproar worldwide.

"Please!" Jeremie begged into the microphone.

-

The three pleas from Jeremie only covered about thirty seconds, but the warriors on Lyoko, it felt much longer. The army of monsters was getting too close for comfort, and the floating obstacle course seemed much more enticing.

Aelita closed her eyes as she tried to calm herself, walking back towards the exit of the cave. She had only one shot. Taking an all-out run up to the edge of the cave, she leapt over to the moving platforms. It was well-known that that jump would have been impossible on Earth, the beauty of being in a virtual world. Watching Ulrich, Yumi and Odd complete a similar hurdle; Aelita did a final caper off the platform and landed heavily on the other side. Moaning in pain as she pushed herself to her feet, she knew she had to go on. Jeremie was in trouble, not to mention what would happen if the protestors found the supercomputer. The tower was not far, only up a ramp to the 'level' of the Mountain Sector they started off at. Waiting for her friends to join her, Aelita wondered what to do. The army would surely be waiting for her above, ready for action to stop her from reaching the tower. As Yumi, the back of the team, reached the rest, the group started off again, ascending the unsupported purple ramp towards the chaos. Ulrich, Yumi and Odd surrounded their 'princess' taking whatever lasers they could as they darted for the large structure. Creating the cave would have undoubtedly drained Aelita's life points, if she took a hit and was devirtualised; it was all over for them and Jeremie.

-

The military-like bangs of feet simultaneously trudging down the stairs shook the computer lab as Jeremie began typing he coordinates for the return to the past. On the screen, he saw his four friends metres from the tower, three of them having their life-points severely decreasing by the second. Across the room from him, Knight shut her eyes in anticipation for the coming instability. What to do in this sort of situation was drilled into the SSF agents from day one. Shoot to refrain, not to kill. The heavy door burst open and the ferocious faces of over a hundred protestors instead filled the wall. Beside her, Knight's partner shouted the too-well-known spiel about the building being under their control, worthy of a TV crime show or movie. The intensity of the agitation seemed to dull many of the people's angry outbursts, the fear of being jailed overpowering the hatred of the factory. Jeremie watched from behind the shelter of the agent's backs as Agent Knight ordered for the group to leave, thankful that no one had noticed him. It would have only increased the disgust felt for him. His ease of mind didn't last long. The thirty-something man with eyes glowing the bullseye symbol marched through the crowd and began demanding for Jeremie. Knight's partner gave a bitter glance at Jeremie before calling for him to step away. The cheers of agreement to the leader's requests were extremely loud, and a vigorous push of people towards the doors was murderous.

A gunshot caused most, if not all of the mass of people to duck to the floor, covering their heads with their hands in human instinct. Blood spewed onto the metal floor of the computer lab as the group's leader's eyes remained transfixed onto the ceiling, set on the XANA symbol. Many rushed away from the front of the pack, saving themselves from being arrested or shot too, leaving the eerie computer lab completely extinguished of noise. A soft cry escaped Knight's mouth as she dropped her weapon, disgusted and scared that she did such a thing. Her partner radioed in for the rest of their team, as he watched her shake uncontrollably. It wasn't like she hadn't shot anyone before; Jeremie could see her telling herself.

_Maybe it was the first time she saw the face_. Jeremie kept his head looking straight forward at the monitors. He was in no way in hell he was going to see that body. He couldn't help but feel failed in himself. The reason of the return-to-the-past was to save people, not to remove themselves from the scene of a death. The computer beeped in announcement of the deactivation of the tower, and Jeremie lightly pressed the enter key.

The enormous white orb filled the room, the suburb and the earth as time reversed, the only sound that Jeremie bothered to hear being the shocked weeps of an acquaintance.

_**----------**_

_**I am so sorry for my horrible updating. Who knew that Easter break meant projects for school?**_

_**Please review if you read this, I'm begging you. Reviews tell me who reads this and who doesn't.**_

_**I will update quicker, promise!**_

_**Thanks for your patience,**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	7. Acceptance

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

* * *

Jeremie's dorm room, one which many had secretly coveted, with views over the main courtyard, but away from the noise and bustle, was lightless when he woke. It was long before dawn, 4:23am in fact, just as he had ordered the supercomputer to take him to, but the anxiety of what had happened in the near future made it impossible to sleep. His head filled with disturbing memories of gunshots, screams and lifeless thuds onto the factory floor, but most notably the shocked gasps of Agent Knight. It slowly wandered to his friends and comrades, guessing if they too had heard the murderous bullet through his microphone in the virtual "death world". Tossing over in his bed, he regretfully let his eyes open themselves and take in the unpleasant day.

The returns to the past were meant to save lives and stop XANA from winning, even on a small scale. Losing a life, even one who was technically their enemy, was still a huge blow to his group. Jeremie lay wide awake for the slow hours after he rose, barely noticing the alarm blaring next to his head at 7am. Would this mean more failures?

* * *

The cafeteria became suddenly choked of sound when Jeremie, Aelita, Odd and Ulrich entered, each of the attendants' eyes directly burning onto their skin. The soft murmur of the morning radio news became the only voices inside the building.

"The SSF believes that this killing was the work of the infamous 'Lyoko Warriors', whose logo was seen inked on the victim's eyes." The voice droned out impassively through the speakers on the four walls of the cafeteria. Jeremie had no doubts over what the newsreader was discussing, "Authorities request any information to be sent to them either by telephone or email at these places." A string of numbers and email addresses followed the proclamation, although nobody took notice of it. Aelita, Odd and Ulrich's eyes widened, evidently they had not heard the bullet while they were on Lyoko.

Hundreds of unimpressed eyes soon became too much to bear, and Jeremie dashed out of the room. I need somewhere safe, he told himself, raking his mind for a possibility. Three sets of rapid footsteps followed him, and Jeremie was certain of whose they were. He heard his name called out numerous times, laced with tension and fear, but he pressed on, finally reaching the edges of the forest bordering the school campus. Slowing down to a stop in front of Ulrich's favourite tree, Jeremie caught the footsteps behind him curbing. A hand soon felt his shoulder, Aelita's. It was warm compared to the cool air of the outdoors, a welcoming peace, but Jeremie turned around before he could appreciate it. Aelita stared on.

"Jeremie, what's going on?" Each of his friends' eyes glared at him, softer than those in the cafeteria, not nonetheless demanding for information. There was no way he could avoid this.

"We lost. XANA managed to take away a life." He admitted, met with a swift change of expressions, "Before the return-to-the-past, Agent Knight shot the man who was possessed by XANA." Aelita covered her mouth with her hand, shocked by what she heard.

"That's what the radio news was about?" She questioned, this evolving into a rhetorical one as Jeremie couldn't answer. He did not want to. A booming clap of thunder immediately altered the atmosphere, as if on cue. Ulrich and Odd tried to grasp control over their vocabulary, but remained quiet and watched the scene play out in front of them. Something like this had never happened before, something this disastrous, this fatal.

"Worst of all, we're getting blamed for this, the public and media know the XANA bullseye as _our_ logo." Jeremie continued, his voice unchanging and solemn. The foursome lingered still as they each processed the startling news.

* * *

"Knight." The deep voice belonging to Agent Marchal greeted as his translator stepped into the room. The woman in question grimaced in response as she flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder. She hated how Marchal used her surname to pull rank over her, something some more irritating and by-the-book employees would call psychological abuse.

"Anything new?" She asked, dropping her handbag unceremoniously onto the floor of the workplace and striding over to his desk. Marchal's Parisian office had changed much since she had last been, the formerly pristine and neat desks and floor covered with various papers, files and books. The florescent lights shone some of the plastic covers into her eyes. She could tell the case was taking its toll on him. Rain spat at the window behind the computer monitors, reminding both of their first meeting. It was very déjà vu.

"Nothing." he confessed, sighing heavily and pushing himself away from the wooden table, crushing a few achieves under the wheels of the chair. Knight gave him a puzzled look, why on earth would he ask her to come, then? It was clear that she would not get anything else from the man if she pursued, so the female agent resigned and plonked herself into the armchair in the corner of the room. Leaving her mind to go blank, she stared across it, taking in every aspect of from a strictly observe state. It did not remain vacant for long, and strange images of someone filled her head.

"_We'll stay here with you then." _She heard herself say in a tone not native to her. The sidearm she hated to carry was pulled out and aimed at a door, one which separated her from loud and demanding yells. The dream continued in flashes, shrieks from the fellow blonde teenager she longed to help, screams of agony and fear, hundreds of people simultaneously dropping to the ground, blood spurting out of a wound she created. What a bizarre vision it was, she told herself, but she knew all too well it was too vivid to be false. Something had happened, and the people she was protecting had to do with it.

"Knight." Again the voice spoke and broke her out of her alarming thoughts. It was obvious Marchal had been watching her relive the imaginings, and concern was written all over his usually impassive face. Swallowing to stop her from saying non-sensical and idiotic words, she stared up into her boss's air. He too, again, kept settled.

"Why did you ask me to come here?" she inquired, ordering her expression to stay poised in front of the strange glance she received from him. This time however, there was no moment passing before he replied.

"You have heard of the death of John Reux, the outspoken protestor who most recently spoke against the terrorists." He stated, but intending it to be a question. There was no need to elaborate onto whom he was referring. Marchal pulled himself up to his full height and paced back to his desk, leaving the seconds of a friendly concern behind him and returning to business. Knight's eyes followed him,

"Yes." She replied, unsure of the meaning behind this rank-over-rank interrogation. Recollections of the kids' examinations flooded her, and a wave of worry passed over. Marchal had seemed quite menacing then, just like now. It was ironic; she was now in a similar position to the "Lyoko Warriors". Was he suspecting her?

* * *

Yumi's fast-paced steps across the bridge to the abandoned factory had seemed far noisier in the gentle atmosphere of the building.

"Come to the factory, we're not going to class today." Ulrich had mentioned in an earlier phone call, reiterating exactly what Jeremie had said to him. He had seemed depressed on the connection, but Yumi had told herself she was being silly. Now, she stood in the computer lab, surrounded by her associates, undergoing an odd mix of emotions, her brain not knowing what to feel after hearing of the failure. Aelita watched Yumi with displeased eyes. None of their group had realised how much of a toll something like this would have brought. It was only 10 in the morning, but the minutes seemed like hours in the current miserable state.

"Do you think the SSF are going to come after us now?" She questioned, met only with blank stares and unknowing glances.

They hid in the factory the entire day, only listening to the rain pour down and the taps of the supercomputer keyboard. They were in too deep now, shutting down Lyoko wouldn't save them, nor would handing themselves over. Each of their phones rang, Mr. Delmas using his daughter's mobile to try to contact them, as they hadn't reported to class and weren't in their dorms. Hours passed, and finally they returned to the campus, a long day coming to an end, hoping the next was better than the last.

A blaring crash from the above levels of caught the band of five off-guard as they entered the dormitory hall. All of their chins instinctively raised at the sound. Human curiosity and instinct took over as they unquestionably darted up the staircase and towardsthe source of the sound.

"Come on. Move it!" Shouts came from down the hall, from the door of the room many found desirable. Another echo of breaking glass followed, then several sets of footsteps. Yumi pushed herself against the wall to avoid being detected, instantly being copied by her buddies. Four men in dark suits ran past the hallway, too caught up in their business to notice the five of them. The pats of feet gradually faded, and soon the dorm room seemed safe to investigate.

Making his way to the entrance of his room, carefully avoiding the shards of broken glass along the floor, Jeremie peered out to see what exactly had occurred. The room was unlit, and thousands of tiny fragments of glass shone in the light flowing from the hallway. The bedcovers had been torn and the mattress upturned, the stuffing of the pillow littered across the room. His schoolbooks were slashed, pages with ripped edges falling off the bookcase on the opposite side of the room, but most notably, the desktop was empty. HIs computer was gone.

* * *

_**I know, I know. My updating habits are terrible.**_

_**It's been almost a month, how is everybody?**_

_**Twists and turns await the Lyoko Warriors, and to discover them for yourself, you must review!**_

_**Thanks in advance,**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	8. Bombshells

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-

* * *

**_

Jeremie swore under his breath as he surveyed the state of his room once again. Needless to say, it didn't look much better. The room was eerily silent, the same way that was becoming the norm in the past few days, and it seriously unnerved him. Swallowing heavily, he turned to face his friends.

"This is getting way out of hand." He admitted, and it didn't take a genius to note the tone of his voice. It reflected everyone else's thoughts, that what they had seen in their worst nightmares was coming true, again. Aelita grimaced, but nodded in agreement. What were they going to do? She asked herself. Ulrich leant against the bookcase, watching the floor as if it were about to fall from beneath them and Odd stood as if made of stone. Nobody breathed a word.

"Who do you think it was?" Ulrich's voice questioned after some endless moments. A footstep sounded deafening in the darkness of the room, and his voice like thunder. Aelita shook her head to rid the disturbing thoughts plaguing it, to stop herself from being affected by them, but she could suddenly feel the three boys' gazes on her. They knew she knew who those figures were. Odd began to move towards her, mouthing her name as no sound managed to escape, but Jeremie reached her first. Repeating the motion she had used to calm him before, he placed a hand gingerly on her shoulders and absent mindedly rubbed his thumb against the softness of her clothing.

"They were the same men who came after you and your father weren't they?" He asked rhetorically, as she refused to answer, only communicating in shocked gasps and heavy intakes of air. She only nodded again.

"The men in black." He clarified, but it sounded more like a question than a statement to Ulrich and Odd's ears.

The lights of Jeremie's bedroom suddenly flickered on, blinding the foursome as their eyes adjusted to the abrupt change in lighting. Jim stood in the doorway; arms crossed over his large figure and face emotionless.

"Oi! What's going on here? Girls are _not _to be in boy's dormitories; especially _after_…" he failed to complete his spiel about dormitories as he took in the state of the room he stood in, "What on earth happened here?"

* * *

The following morning came quickly, and the investigation into the sabotage of Jeremie's room by Mr. Delmas lasted only an instant. Stories of men in dark suits and sunglasses seemed to fall on deaf ears of the principal, who clearly had lost trust in his students after the inquiry by a government armed agency. Jeremie, Aelita, Ulrich and Odd were dismissed from the administration block in the early hours of the morning, when the air was still thick and fresh, despite the summer vacation only just ending. The four walked in time towards the recreation room as their minds wandered to possible ways the incident with Mr. Delmas could have gone better.

"What are we gonna do?" Odd asked worriedly, taking a break from his usual unfailing calm. Jeremie stopped in his tracks when realisation of Odd's query caught up with him. Searching through the pocket of his jacket, he fished out the small yellow square of paper. One with a phone number on it. His comrades immediately knew what it was. Knight's burn phone number. This was met with unsure glances. The SSF agent's want to help had caused a memorable argument in their group, one nobody intended on repeating. Yumi would be especially annoyed if she was never asked about her opinion on the subject. Jeremie sighed and began to stare at the ground again.

"We have no other choice." He added coolly, and the sheer sparkle of his friends' eyes told him they had been thinking the same thing. The group dashed to the far wall of the dorm block and remained hidden out of sight. It would have been easy for a passerby or another student to mistake their actions, but as Aelita figured later, they were being suspected of everything anyway. Jeremie pressed in the ten digit code corresponding with the paper, holding his breath as his finger hovered over the 'send' button. A confident dip of head from Aelita was all he required. The phone came to life.

* * *

Agent Knight sat in her small office at the back of the SSF building, mindlessly staring out over the building's garage through the window. Marchal was questioning her, and she knew that was an extremely bad thing. This case would make or break her career. She would never be trusted by any company, private or public, if they found out the _Services Secrets de la France _had fired her because they didn't trust her. She was beginning to curse fate for putting her on this case when her mobile phone began to buzz. Jumping in her chair, startled by the unexpected noise, she reached for the cellphone on her desk, stopping only when she noticed it wasn't the one vibrating. Across the room, hanging on the door, was her handbag, and inside it a phone only five other people than herself knew the number to. Five people wanted by the agency she worked for. The Lyoko Warriors. She almost sprinted to the door, not wanting to miss this critical call, and picked up the phone. Gulping, she placed it next to her ear.

"So you wanted my help after all."

* * *

Jeremie was caught off-guard by the confidence in her voice. Did she plan for this exact situation?

"Y-yes, I mean," he stuttered, pushing his glasses up his nose to regain his self-determination, "We did."

"_What did you need help with, Jeremie?"_ Aelita pressed her ear closer to the opposite side of the receiver as she listened in. It was scary, how the SSF agent could pick out a voice she had only heard a few times. Not only that, but by the ease of her usage of their first names, as if they were old friends.

"The men in black. I know the book mentioned Aelita's mother's kidnapping. The men who did it, they wanted Franz Hopper. They worked for the government. Who were they?"

* * *

"The 'Men In Black' was a nickname for a military-slash-government agency that was disbanded about ten years ago." Agent Knight sighed, pacing the office back towards her window-facing desk, "They were tasked with high-priority cases of national security, such as treason or yours." she added. The computer monitor in front of her brightened as she typed in her password, bringing the SSF database up. The database had more files on the citizens of the country than the organization cared to admit, with information on everything and everyone who was born, died, visited or lived in France. One was labeled '_Groupe De Travail National De Sécurité'_, or National Security Task Force. Inside the digital folder held hundreds of secrets from decades ago, secrets that could still unhinge peace now.

"Franz Hopper was one of their failures." Knight added, juggling the phone with her hand as she delved deeper into the notes.

"_Failures?" _Jeremie asked in surprise. She wondered how he could find that surprising. He knew that Franz had taken his daughter to Lyoko, just as the book had said.

"They wanted to apprehend him, but they never found him." Knight lowered herself onto the computer chair she had previously sat on and continued to read the file. "But I'm guessing they will soon."

* * *

The statement hit Jeremie like a tonne of bricks. What did Knight mean by that?

"They will soon?" He repeated after her incredulously. Ulrich, Odd and Aelita evidently had trouble hiding their own shock as they fell limp against the brick wall for support.

"Careless Actions _ends with Hopper and Aelita hiding in Lyoko. That's why the readers want the supercomputer to be shut down; they think it will stop him from telling you to harm the earth again, believing he has brain-washed you."_ Knight's voice cleared, unfazed by the obvious change in voice from the emotions, _"I won't be surprised if they come after you. That's why I want to help; it's only a matter of time. The living former members of Men In Black are still after him." _the voice continued, curtained with anxiety and concern. The bombshell never wore off the teenagers as Jeremie pressed the 'end' button on instinct, to get away from the thing that was causing pain, even if not physically. Aelita gulped and watched Jeremie with wide eyes. If what Knight said was true, they weren't going to be safe for long. They had to end this soon.

* * *

Knight furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and started at the mobile after its quick break. The dial tone rang out loudly in the quiet of the room. As she imagined for long moments over why the teenagers could have hung up so suddenly, a forceful hand slammed down onto her shoulder, stunning her. A yelp left her mouth as the chair spun her around to face her assailant. Marchal. The fury on his face from overhearing the incriminating phone call was frightening so close, but Knight could not move. She was trapped.

"Agent Knight," he spat, making her name seem like taboo, "that is assisting terrorists." The woman was too scared by the proximity to point out that they weren't convicted of what they were accused of.

"You're under arrest." Marchal seethed, as his translator could only stare in shock, rendered completely speechless.

* * *

The several clinks of metal on cement ran in pattern as three skateboards and two scooters made their way through the sewers. Yumi took in heavy breaths are she landed her jump over the river of dirty water.

"Care to tell me what's going on?" She yelled to her friend preceding her, irritated that the greeting she got for that morning was an order to the factory by Jeremie.

"We'll explain later!" Odd called out from the front of the pack, leaping off his skateboard with great gymnastic ability and storing it behind the ladder. Yumi scowled at the response, unhappy that this has become a common occurrence of her being left in the dark. The entire battle with the SSF was primarily after-hours, when she was separated from her clique. The sun shone into the group's eyes as they crossed the bridge to the factory, reflecting off the water in the canal below. It would have been considered pretty under other circumstances. The series of grunts as the five landed on the floor below was soon followed by the hum of the moving metal box to the depths of the underground factory.

Jeremie paid no attention to Ulrich's explanation to Yumi as he raced to the supercomputer. He needed to shut down all access points to his and Aelita's laptops immediately. Each of the connections ran through the factory, and if the Men In Black were as powerful as Knight made them out to be, they would be there in the building, ready with weapons for them instantly. It was almost a matter of life and death. Aelita followed the blonde's footsteps and watched seemingly calmly over his shoulder, trying to keep her face neutral and ignore the unheard of rate her heart was beating. Maternal instinct cut in and she soon stood trying to calm the genius down in his haphazard mistakes in the rush of his mission. When the lines of code and programming were sent to the laptops did Jeremie finally begin to relax, and the crisis seemed to have left. Every single one of their small gang was on edge from this whole drama, but thinking of it being over and finished was no help. They needed to, but didn't know how, to end it.

A hurried beep of proclamation snapped the team out of their misery. Someone had sent a message to Jeremie, more precisely his laptop. Someone was trying to find him. Yumi, Ulrich and Odd moved from their places leaning against the walls of the enclosed computer lab to witness what was happening. They all held their breath as Jeremie opened the email. It was from an Agent Knight.

_Jeremie Belpois, _it read, _you're on your own now, I've been caught out. For both of our sakes, please end this. _

Below laid a web link. The mouse pointer appeared to move on its own as it clicked it. A brightly coloured page appeared.

_A magazine website?_ Aelita mused. _Knight's last move was to send us this?_ She realised her mistake only seconds after. The headline of the article was "Controversial Author Drops A TV-worthy Bombshell".

"_Careless Actions_ 'author' Robert G. Montengro admitted in an interview yesterday that the questionable book that is 'his' was never written by him." Yumi read aloud from the text on the screen. None of them needed it to be said aloud, it only made the situation much worse.

"_I have no idea who wrote this book, but it wasn't me."_ He had been quoted as saying, _"I'm getting the money and the praise, but the work is not mine. Somebody else did it for me, and I had nothing to do with it."_ For the hundredth time that day, the members of the gang's mouths dropped to the floor. The remainder of the online article explained that the author had been sick of getting both acclaim and abuse for the book, which claims to be non-fiction and accusing five teenagers of terrorism. Ulrich felt a minute spark of empathy for the author. Maybe he knew nothing, and that Franz Hopper teaching him Science all those years ago was a coincidence, he thought. The area stayed extinguished of noise.

"Well where does this put us now?" Yumi asked to nobody in particular, hoping that someone had an answer for her. Jeremie sighed and placed his hands together, as if in prayer.

"Back to the start." He resigned, knowing that his opinion made no difference to the criticalness of the affairs. They were on their own for the rest of this campaign, just as Knight had said.

Five teenagers against the world.

* * *

_**You like? I hope so!**_

_**I'm finally getting back into updating more regularly, so thank you for being so very very *very* patient.**_

_**Reviews are love, so please drop one by me.**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	9. Lightning

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

* * *

Agent Philippe Marchal had never been someone who let stress get to him. Even the infamous 'Gracia case' had failed to coax him out of the tranquil demeanour he was famous for, yet this one had challenged everything anyone ever knew about him. The dark sedan he directed through the seats was eerily silent, despite it being crammed with five full-grown adults. All of them were anxious about the oncoming events, which had been lead by a hasty phone call from their leader, ordering them to go to an abandoned factory in the suburbs of Paris. Agent Moreau, a transfer from the technological division of the SSF, had been puzzled by the bizarre command upon receiving the call. The address initially meant nothing special to her or any other agent in Marchal's team, but all had become suddenly clear as the vehicle neared the building.

The factory, abandoned almost twenty years ago according to the database, was an exact match to the one she had dreamt of a night or so ago. Everything about it from the position of the windows to how much rust surrounded them was precisely the same, as if it had been taken straight from it. As the confused agent shook her head in disbelief, the black car slowed to a stop in front of the bridge leading to the building. In the sunlight of the September morning, the factory looked about a century old, the light highlighting the cracks and blemishes over it. Dirty water ran down the canal circling it, duplicating the untidy state of the site. Marchal violently slamming the door of the driver's seat woke up the dazed agent out of her daydreams, impelling her to leap out of the car after him.

"We're going to do this quickly and quietly." He affirmed, lifting open the car trunk and briefly studying its contents. Moreau followed Marchal's gaze as the sound of loose gavel crunching under tyres came up behind her. Another two cars full of SSF agents rolled up, confusing the woman on how Marchal wanted the operation to be quiet. 'Quiet' in SSF terms meant two or three armed agents storming a small office. She barely had enough time to catch the bulletproof vest thrown at her by Marchal as she was lost in her musing. It took only seconds for her to notice that the two vehicles that just arrived did not bring SSF agents. Firstly, none of them were women, but the most distinguishable difference was that all of them donned dark tinted sunglasses. They fit the stereotypes of secret government agents perfectly; a conspiracy theorist's dream. A breeze of blonde hair flying past caught Moreau off-guard. Agent Knight was about.

"Knight, this is your last chance. If you screw this up or play me, you'll wish you were dead." Moreau overheard Marchal threaten as he glared at the woman, someone Moreau was only acquaintances with, but had heard much of. It was the day's worst-kept secret in the agency, the heated face off between Knight and Marchal over Knight's phone call. Moreau had not heard the details, but apparently Knight was thought to be assisting the terrorists they were about to capture. _The perfect role_. Moreau thought as she watched the two keep deathly eye contact, a non-verbal argument. Knight as a translator could lead the government agency down the wrong track, saving the teenagers from jail or worse. She had not personally read the book, for lack of ability in English, but somewhere inside her she felt that the kids were not to blame, at least entirely. Eventually she had written it off as maternal instinct, seeing the pressure from the public and media on the agency to get them. Evidently what they had done was terrible. Murder? Treason? Selling state secrets? Moreau did not know, and she had the feeling that no one except Marchal and Knight did exactly.

Knight tied her hair back in a ponytail as she simultaneously tightened the vest around her. _Why would we need these? _She pondered. What were the chances that five teenagers who cared for a virtual world and supercomputer would carry guns and weapons around with them? She was truly amazed at the impact of American television shows broadcast in France.

"We apprehend first, _then_ you people can have the supercomputer." Marchal bellowed to the many armed people around him, the second half of it directed at his Men In Black friends. Prior to joining the _Services Secrets de la France_, Marchal was the youngest member of the ill-famed Men In Black, an organisation almost solely focused on one Franz Hopper in its later years. Knight could tell he wanted the kids just as much as the destruction of the supercomputer, but the call of SSF duty had sadly taken priority. It must have been a good ten years that he had been silently hunting down the supercomputer, and he was not going to let it out of his grip now.

Soon, the concurrent sound of fast footsteps moving across the bridge together as one was deafening.

* * *

Inside the barely lit computer lab, Jeremie's fingers were rapidly flying across the keyboard. All of them had heard the several sets of taps from above, telling them immediately that someone, some _people_ were coming. Fast. The monitors of the supercomputer mainframe shone with the 'elevator shutdown program' run by Jeremie_. At least that was one way to keep the oncoming people away, _Jeremie told himself, but he knew all too well, just like his friends, that there were many access points into the computer lab. It was the jewel in the factory's crown, and Franz Hopper had wanted more than one way to get to his computer. It was in case of an emergency he had in mind when he chose the room. Unfortunately that choice was going to haunt them now.

"You think they're the agents?" Yumi questioned, but there was really no need. Each of the gang was certain who was coming to get them. Jeremie didn't get the chance to answer her almost rhetorical question before the computer began to beep uncontrollably. A large red exclamation mark covered the screen, announcing a XANA attack. Jeremie swore before hitting the arm of the chair hard in frustration. Behind him, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and Aelita only had to glance at each other for one millisecond to agree on a battle plan. A XANA attack risked lives, and had now proved to be able to. The SSF would have to wait. Throwing open the trapdoor to the scanner room below, Aelita descended the ladder. Unbeknownst to the others, she almost cut her lip from biting it in fear. She wasn't sure of anything now, hadn't been since the beginning of the school year. Followed by her comrades, the group instinctively ran towards the scanners, letting the girls go first. Aelita always had first rank, by unspoken order of Jeremie. It was no surprise that she was called 'Princess'. One storey above, Jeremie opened the scanning program on the computer.

"Transfer: Aelita. Transfer: Yumi." Jeremie whispered, it coming naturally from the hundreds of times sending his friends to Lyoko, "Scanner."

"Virtualisation."

* * *

A single nod from Marchal was all Knight needed to gain permission. Kicking down the rotten wooden door in front of her, Knight led the other SSF agents and Men In Black down the secluded stairwell. She had seen this secret entrance in a strange dream, and was amazed when it turned out to be true. The staircase wasn't lit, and as she lowered down the steps, she could hear many natural yelps when people slipped. A few metres in front of her, the door into the equally dark computer lab stood. Knight couldn't hold back a smile as she saw it. _This was it._ A voice in her head told her. Waiting for the rest of the agents to catch up, Agent Knight never left eye contact with that door. She didn't see the giant sparks of electricity fly at her from above.

At the back of the pack, Agent Moreau let out a terrified scream as she witnessed lightning appear out of nowhere and shock the men and women in front of her. The staircase had become electrified, the walls and floor of it suddenly unsafe to touch. People began to collapse in front of her, moaning in pain and studying their burns. Soon the sparks hit her too.

* * *

In the room one across and below, two of the scanner's doors opened again, inviting the next participants to enter. Ulrich smiled supportively to his buddy as he went to step inside the tube, but a loud crash stopped him. Before he was fully inside, the scanner door abruptly closed, shutting him and Odd out. The ceiling lights of the scanner room blacked out abruptly, leaving it completely lost of light.

"What happened, Jeremie?" Ulrich called to his intelligent friend upstairs, lifting his chin in recognition. Odd followed Ulrich's upwards gaze. Both could hear the loud taps of the keyboard above, as the genius desperately tried to find out an answer to Ulrich's question.

"I-I don't know. XANA's taken over the entire factory!" He stammered, incredulous to the current events. "The scanners, the supercomputer, the elevator, everything!" He exclaimed.

* * *

Outside the factory, a passersby stood and watched in shock and awe as the deserted factory became illuminated with colourful lightning.

* * *

_**Hey again!**_

_**I always seem to be apologising now, sorry!**_

_**I had exams (worth 50+% of my semester mark) so studying took priority number one.**_

_**They're over, and now I'm back, so please press that shiny little review button for more excitement.**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	10. Onslaught

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-

* * *

**_

"JEREMIE!" Aelita shrieked in fear as she dodged another assault of lasers from the oncoming Hornets. "JEREMIE, HELP US!"

A few metres ahead of her, Yumi struggled to find her balance on the floor of the Forest Sector as she too avoided numerous lasers. The entire forest world of Lyoko, including the never-ending tree trunks both up and down, had not stopped shaking since they virtualised into it. There were violent earthquakes in the virtual world, something that had never, ever happened before. Something was very wrong.

A final, strong jolt to the right ended the onslaught. Aelita screamed, flying sideways from the force and stopping only when she struck into a tree. The Hornets seemed to have perished in the moving trees, but in the back of her mind, Aelita knew that that would be too good to be true. Moments later, Yumi, who was now convinced that another quake wouldn't come in the time taken to run a few metres, rushed to her friend's aid.

"Aelita, what's happening?" She questioned, helping the princess to her feet. Her voice was controlled, but a hint of distress was evident. Aelita shook her head in exasperation.

"I-I don't know." She answered. The two found their feet, leaning against trees for support. Lyoko may have been virtual, but the pain they endured while they inhabited it was still real. A loud rumble sounded from far above, followed by a familiar voice.

"Aelita, Yumi, are you OK?" Jeremie seemed anxious. Something was wrong.

"Jeremie!" Aelita gasped in relief, forgetting momentarily about her anger for him not helping or answering when she needed him to. The girls looked to the sky, which had dimmed into darkness since the earthquakes began. The reassuring light and air of the forest had diminished.

"I think XANA's trying to take over the supercomputer. You _have _to deactivate the tower now!" There was no small talk – this was business, a life or death situation. Aelita knew all too well that the SSF would be right outside the door. The rumbling got louder on Lyoko, closer and more dangerous.

"Where's Odd and Ulrich?"

"XANA's already taken over the factory. Ulrich and Odd are trying to insulate the computer lab, but the scanners are offline. If you're devirtualised, you're gone." He answered gravely. The reply brought instant worry to the two girls. Yumi gathered her bearings first.

"All right, we have no other choice." She resigned, putting on a confident expression. "We have to deactivate that tower."

"It's two hundred metres north-east of your position. Be careful." Jeremie switched off the microphone and left the girls to their thoughts. Yumi smiled supportively at Aelita.

"We'd better go before the earthquakes start-"

Yumi wasn't able to finish her sentence before savage blows began to rock the sector again. The girls felt like rag dolls, helplessly flying from one side of the pathway to the other, desperately clinging onto the ground to keep from falling into the digital sea. As the path swayed from side to side, Aelita got to her knees and began crawling down the path, soon followed by Yumi. Neither of them had to be told again of the urgency of deactivating that tower.

* * *

The thick panel of wood landed with a crash onto the metal doors of the elevator. Ulrich and Odd, having (barely) passed last year's Science course, made sure to keep far away from the metal, for risk of being electrocuted. They had heard the yelps of the agents in the stairwell as they were shocked unconscious by the sudden lightning rays. In the centre of the room, clinging for dear life to the chair of supercomputer console, Jeremie desperately researched for something that would save them. Something that would get the SSF off their back. Something that would tell the world that the book was a lie. Something that would stop XANA from killing them all then and there with his possessed factory and rays of lightning. It would be only minutes before he got his clutches on the supercomputer once again.

A huge pillar of purple electricity shot down from the above storey, connecting the metallic roof and floor and everything in between with static. Both Ulrich and Odd, who stood nearby, were blown off their feet and collided with the far wall. It didn't take a genius to know that between the shock and the head injury from hitting the wall, Ulrich and Odd were out cold.

It killed Jeremie not to tear his eyes away from the monitor for a glance of pity at his unconscious companions, but what he soon discovered almost made him forget about it. A document, entitled __CarelessActions_FinalEdit_ lit up on the main screen. Jeremie immediately knew what this was. It was his and his friends' ticket out of this terrible situation.

As soon has the moment of pride faded away, he got to work. What he was about to do would take every remaining second he had before XANA penetrated the supercomputer.

* * *

Yumi's tessan fan sliced two Hornets consecutively in a row as she dove for cover behind a tree trunk. Another jerk to the right threw her off her balance and caused her to miss the oncoming fan, boomeranging around from her throw. It quickly spun into the void between the virtual trees and out of sight. She swore as she watched it go, her brief loss of concentration leading her to take another hit in the back. The moment then that rage boiled up inside her for the lost fan did wonders for her marksmanship. Another three Hornets exploded into nothingness within ten seconds.

Jeremie's voice abruptly broke out from the dark sky.

"Aelita, you need to hurry up. Ulrich and Odd are out and XANA's just about to cut off communications to Lyoko!"

Aelita evaded another two lasers.

"Jeremie, we're doing the best we can!" She answered irritably. An energy field flew from her hand towards the group of Hornets. It missed all three.

"You're twenty metres from the tower." Jeremie argued before the connection disappeared. Obviously XANA had managed to cut off communications as Jeremie said.

"Let's go, Yumi!" Aelita called to her friend as she dashed down the path towards the tower. Aelita's eyes were only for that tower, and she ignored every other threat as she sprinted to it. A fan took out her pursuing Hornets, letting Aelita welcome he haven of the tower without injury. Outside, the rumbling got considerably louder.

* * *

_Thursday, June 24._

The date of the document played over and over in Jeremie's head. It was almost three months ago, and he couldn't remember exactly what he had been doing that day, but he now knew what Robert Montengro had been. On June 24, he had sent a copy of his manuscript to his publisher, combined with a message asking for as much publicity on it as possible.

Jeremie knew that what he was doing was risky, but he was sure the supercomputer could handle it. He was going to enact a months-long return-to-the-past – requiring huge amounts of energy from the supercomputer.

"There." He whispered to himself as he hit the 'enter' button on the keyboard. The power had been collected from the depths of Sector 5. "XANA, you haven't won this time."

Around him, electricity shot through the air, hitting everything nearby. And had it not been for the insulation installed by Franz Hopper into the chair of the supercomputer mainframe, Jeremie would be fried. The firewall was surviving against XANA's advances, but it wouldn't last for long. A wave of relief shot through Jeremie when the computer beeped in announcement of Aelita's entrance to the tower. The girls had beaten XANA's minions.

* * *

Marchal opened his eyes and slowly propped himself up in the narrow stairwell. He had no idea how long he was unconscious for, but he was sure that those teenagers were to blame. He was, to admit,, slightly agitated by the sight of his fellow agents and Men In Black friends all lying unconscious with him, electricity burns evident on their skin and clothes. Marchal did not know what knocked them out. But this was not the time to be worried, no. On the other side of that door was the biggest threat to national security in the recent years. And it was in the form of five troublesome teenagers and a computer.

_What has the world come to? _Marchal mused to himself, using the wall for leverage as he stood.

"Knight." he said, lightly slapping her face to wake her. She, as he suspected, was dead to the world. Concussed for all he knew. It was up to him now.

Marchal silently opened the door into the computer lab as he aimed his firearm. Voices of his superior officers reminding him to shoot to restrain, not to kill, echoed in his head. This kid didn't deserve to live, after everything that he had done, after all the lives he and his friends had risked in their "adventures". Marchal reassured himself with those accusations.

In the middle of the room, the young blonde boy leant towards the keyboard. His eyes were focused on the screen and he was oblivious to anyone and anything else – especially his to-be-shooter.

As the boy whispered something to himself, Marchal took the shot.

* * *

_**Long time, no speak. So sorry about that (not sarcasm).**_

_**One more chapter! Review to find out what happens to our favourite warriors and SSF agents!**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose**_


	11. Epilogue

_**-I do not own Code Lyoko-**_

* * *

Jeremie's body convulsed and trembled violently as the blast of a gunshot echoed through his ears. He grabbed the lab bench in front of him for support, feeling his heart rate slow to normal and stop attempting to leap out of his chest. It took a few moments for the world to right itself and him to grasp his circumstances. Seated at the lab bench behind him and Aelita, Ulrich and Odd seemed to have felt the same abrupt wake-up-from-a-vivid-nightmare spasms judging from Odd's very loud squeak. Jeremie adjusted his glasses, pushing them further up the bridge of his nose. Their group's strange antics had gone unnoticed in the bustling science room, where other students were preoccupied talking amongst themselves, sitting on the tables and throwing scrunched up balls of paper at each other.

Jeremie turned his attention to the front of the classroom, where Mrs. Hertz was absent. According to the clock above the blackboard, it was a two minutes past eleven in the morning. And, according to the last year's timetable, midway through their final Science class of the week. _Correction_, Jeremie told himself, _the final Science class of the term_.

It had worked; the three-month-long return to the past had worked. Robert Montenegro had not finished his manuscript of _Careless Actions_ yet. He had not sent it to his publisher. He had not sent a copy to the SSF. Marchal and Knight had not been called to investigate the terrorism acts of their group and Franz Hopper. They were safe. Lyoko was safe. Jeremie heaved a huge sigh of relief – they'd done it.

* * *

"Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa, okay. Lemme get this straight." Odd dropped his hands back to rest on the wooden bench, an expression of sheer confusion pasted on his face, "This Montenegro guy really _did _discover the supercomputer?"

"That's right." Jeremie replied, continuing to tap away at his keyboard, not taking him eyes off the screen, "During his last year here at Kadic." Beside him, Yumi furrowed her eyebrows in puzzlement and turned around to face him.

"But he kept it a secret. He liked his ex-teacher Franz Hopper, enough to leave it be." She spoke slowly, trying to comprehend what Jeremie had just explained to them. Jeremie nodded, seeming to be quite irritated that the others hadn't understood all of this. Ulrich put a hand to his forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

"And after writing the book and having it published, he sent it to the SSF so they'd investigate us." Ulrich added. Jeremie only nodded again, clearly have given up paying attention to their lack of knowledge. Ulrich gritted his teeth at his genius friend, "_Who then tried to kill us!"_ Jeremie ignored his anger and nodded again, but a smile began to creep onto his face. Maybe they _were_ getting it after all.

"So why then are we helping this bastard's career by emailing him government documents?" Yumi exploded, annoyed at Jermeie's ignorance. Jeremie lowered his laptop lid and brought his attention back to his friends.

"Robert Montenegro's career was failing. He was set to lose his job as an important journalist. He needed some big story to get him back to the top. Writing a book about a conspiracy that involved supercomputers, disbanded secret government departments and a group of teenaged terrorists lead by a delusional scientist would have gotten him there, wouldn't it? And the best part of all was that it was _real_. As a journalist, he knew that a story like this would be remembered forever. He would be remembered forever. A liking for some old junior-high teacher was nothing compared to getting all of this."

The five of them sat in stunned silence for a long time, comprehending everything again. It was starting to make sense now.

"But how did he find out about all those XANA attacks?" Aelita questioned in a hushed voice, "I mean, we enacted returns-to-the-past. Memories were wiped, catastrophes averted! Technically, nothing really did hap-"

"He did his research, Aelita. Going back in time still left unanswered questions. Huge numbers of people sharing strange dreams, the whole world feeling they had déjà vu, elderly people dropping dead mid-sentence. Robert Montenegro clearly thought that this was Franz Hopper's doing."

"But how did he find out about us?" Odd asked, stretching out and placing his hands behind his head in an attempt to relax. Jeremie swallowed awkwardly.

"That, I don't know. Coincidence maybe, but it's unlikely. It could have been XANA's doing. Maybe he really did find out about us. But it doesn't matter as long as he remains famous and content." Aelita followed Odd's lead and stretched herself out on the bench. Jeremie returned to his hacking into government databases. Yumi and Ulrich exchanged a disturbed look.

"So it's all come down to this? After all this fighting against XANA and protecting the Earth, our job is to keep a stupid reporter happy?" Yumi spat incredulously. Jeremie had returned to his email.

"Hopefully, this should do the trick for the next ten years." He responded, "Surely he can twist this much information around to last him even longer than that!" Yumi remained concerned, but left it be. Ulrich collapsed onto the ground and pulled out a rather heavy-looking book from his jacket pocket. Seeing Yumi's curious expression, he smiled and waved the French-German dictionary in front of her eyes.

"I figure if we're gonna get another summer vacation, I'm gonna spend less time getting yelled at by my grandmother for forgetting my German." Mouthing an 'ah' sound, Yumi too relaxed into the wooden bench. A second summer, that wasn't something you got every year. Next to her, Odd seemed to have realised this fact also. Before Aelita could ask what he was doing, he'd leapt off the wooden bench and begun to dance around the wooden bench, singing some ridiculous song at the top of his voice,

"I get another summer in Italy! I get another summer in Italy! I get another summer with Alina! I GET ANOTHER SUMMER WITH ALINA…"

* * *

_**First of all, I'm really sorry for never finishing this. I kinda lost steam towards the last couple of chapters and eventually gave up. **_

_**Thanks to trainalf for getting me to finally finish this. I've rediscovered my love for this story (shame I only had a chapter left…)**_

_**Thanks to EVERYONE who read or reviewed or favourited or alerted this story. It meant so much to me. And you guys who stuck with it until the end, thanks even more!**_

_**Until next time,**_

_**-Kailey Roxanna Rose (now xSymnia)**_


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